ALIENS AND SO FORTH ROUND-UP 057

Can you tell that I've hit the "M" portion of my aliens spreadsheet

Martians:

These very humanoid Martians have a whole series of problems: 

1. some heavenly object is due to smash into their planet 

2. they are bad at science

3. when they turned to Earth to look for help with their problem the only person they could get to help them was this jerk named Ritton, who intends to cash in his Mars favour for help in taking over Earth 

4 Ritton doesn't even have the Super TNT they need to save their civilization, he just knows where to steal it 

5. the Human Torch is involved and not happy about the way that Ritton and the Martians are handling things

All this adds up to a long series of misadventures in which the Martians kind of half-ass attempts to steal the Super TNT formula from its creator Carson and then (because they crashed a train on top of Carson and killed him, right out of the gate) his daughter Diane while the Human Torch flies around beating them up.

The Torch eventually captures Ritton and the Martians offer a mid-level apology for the hundreds of deaths that they have caused while working for him - they had to because the Great One said so! This is good enough for the Torch and Diane and they hand over the Super TNT. Mars is saved! (Marvel Mystery Comics v1 003, 1940)

Mercurians:

Rex Dexter of Mars has to operate outside of his sphere of expertise here, because these vile slavers are from Mercury. What's worse, they haven't just been capturing regular people to slave for them (we never actually learn just what kind of slavery the Mercurians are into) but have somehow also got ahold of Dexter's ladyfriend Cynde.

Though the Mercurian-on-the-street looks like an axe-wielding pig-man, the Mercurian leader Lord Curo and his elite guards all dress like they are in an owl-themed 1960s super-spy organization, possibly called W.H.O. This is very handy for Rex Dexter, who sneaks in after stealing a guard's outfit and then sneaks all of the slaves out in some more guard outfits acquired in a quick brawl. Once Curo has no more Earth hostages, his city is bombed to dust by the vengeful humans. (Mystery Men Comics 019, 1940)

Mercurians:

These Mercurians are very boring white guys, but even boring aliens get acknowledged here. They might just be Earth colonists, though, so view them with mild suspicion. (Planet Comics 007, 1940)

Mermen:

The Mermen are an undersea race who work for the non-Merman and big creep Poseida to strip the ruins of the underwater city of Coralla of its riches. It's possible that they are descended from the people who lived in Coralla before it was ruined, in which case this situation seems pretty galling, but if it bothers the Mermen, they aren't complaining. Like most nonhuman servant races in comics they seem to have a pretty bad union. 

It's possible that the Mermen are related to the Frogmen of Atlantis, a similarly under-unionized aquatic species. (Fantastic Comics 003, 1940)